Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-06-11
Jantje counted on his fingers for some ,ec.

onds, and then held up his hand and opened (
1t four times In succession. 49," he said, /
"twenty years last winter. Baas Frank was
young then; he had only q little down upon (
his chin. One year, when ON Jacob went
away, after tho first rains, he left six oxen +
that were too poor CHM to 60 with my faith
er, and told him to look after them as though
they were his children. But the oxen were
bewitched. Three of them took the lungsick
and died, a lion got one, a snake killed one,
and one ate tulip and died too. So when
ON Jacob came back the next year all the
oxen were gone. He was very angry with
my father, and beat him with a yoke strap
till he was all blood, and, though We showed
him the bones Of the oxen, he said that we
had stolen them and sold them.
Snow, ON Jacob had a beautiful span of
black ken that he loved like children. Six
teen Of them were there, and they would
come up to the yoke when he called them and
put down their heads of themselves. They
were tame as dogs. These oxen were thin
when they came down; but in two months
they got fat and began to van to trek about
as oxen do. At this time there was a Basutu,
one of Sequati's people, resting in our hut,
for he had hurt his foot with a thorn. When
SAA Ao0Au VuAV II 4JdSuLu was tuS10
he was very angry, Tor lie said that all Basu-
Basutu that the baas said that he must 60
away, and he went that night. Next morn
ing the span of black oxen were gone too.
The kraal gate was down and they had gone.
We hunted all day, but we could not find
them. Then ON Jacob got mad with rage,
and the young Baas Frank told him that
one of the Katfir boys had said to him that
he had heard my father sell them to the Ba-
sutu for sheep which he was to pay to us in
the ummer. 1t was a lie, but Baas Frank
hated my father because Of something about
u woman-a Zulu girl. Next morning, when
we were asleep, just at daybreak, ON Jacob
Muller and Baas Frank and two kaffirs
came into the hut and pulled us out, tho old
man, my uncle, my father, my mother and
myself, and tied us up to four mimosa trees,
with buffalo reims. Then the kafirs went
away, and ON Jacob asked my father where
the cattle were, and my father told him that
he did not know. Then he took Off his hat
and said q prayer to the Big Man in the sky,
and when he had done Baas Frank came up
with a gun and stood quite close and shot
my father dead, and no fell forward and
hung quite over the REIN, his head touching
his feet. Then he loaded the gun again and
shot the old man, my uncle, and he slipped
down dead, and his hands stuck up in the air
against the REIN. Next he shot my mother,
but the bullet did not kill her, and cut the
REIN, and she ran away, and he ran after
her and killed her. When that was done he
came back to shoot me; but l was young
then and did not know that it is better to be
dead than to live like a dog, and l begged
and prayed for mercy while he was loading
the gun.
"But the baas only laughed, and said he
would teach Hottentots how to steal cattle,
and old On Jacob prayed out loud to the Big
Man and said he was very sorry for me, but
it was the dear Lords will. And then, Just
us Baas Frank lifted the gun he dropped it
again, for there, coming softly, softly over
tho brow of the hill, in and out between tho
bushes, were all the sixteen oxen. They had
got out i'll tho night and strayed away into
some kloof for Il change of pasture, and
come back when they were full and tired of
being alone. ON Jacob turned quite white
and scratched his head, and then fell upon
his knees and thanked the dear Lord for saw
ing my life; and just then the English
woman, Baas Franks mother, came down
from the wagon to see what the firing was
at, and when she saw all tho people dead and
mo weeping, tied to the tree, and learned
what it was about, she went quite mad, for
sometimes she had a kind heart when she was
not drunk, and said that a curse would fall
on them, and that they would all die in blood.
And she took a knife and cut me loose,
though Baas Frank wanted to kill me, so that
l might tell no tales; and l ran away, travel
ing by night and hiding by day, for l was
very much frightened, till l got to Natal, aml
there stopped, working in Natal till the
land became English, when Baas Croft hired
me to drive his cart up from Maritzburg;
and living by here l found Bias Frank, look
ing bigger but just tho same except for his
beard.
There, bias, that is the truth, and all the
truth, and that is why l hate Baas Frank,
because lie shot my father and mother, and
why Baas Frank hates me, because he cannot
forget That he did 1t and l saw him do it, for,
as our people say, 'one always hates a man
one has wounde with a spear%;'" and having
finished his narrative, the miserable looking
little man picked up his greasy old felt hat,
that had a leather strap fixed round tho
crown, in which were stuck q couple Of frayed
ostrich feathers, and jammed 1t down over
his ears, and then fell to drawing circles on
the soil with his long toes. His auditors only
A'SSSN " oaAo AouSu u kunSGlH IUlC
seemed to be beyond comment. They never
doubted its truth; the mans way of telling it
carried conviction with 1t. And, indeed, two
Of them at any rate, had heard such stories
before. Most people have who live in the
wilder parts of South Africa, though they
are not all to 10 taken for gospel.
"You say" remarked old 6ilas, ut last,
"that the woman said that a curse would fall
on them and that they would die in blood.
She was right. Twelve years ago ON Jacob
and bis wife were murdered by a party of
Mapoch's KafIirs, down on the edge of that
very Lydenburg veldt. There was q great
noise about it at the time, l remember, but
nothing came Of 1t. Baas Frank was not
there. He was away shooting buck; so he
escaped and inherited all his fathers farms
and cattle and came to live here"
80" said the Hottentot, without showing
the slightest interest or surprise. II knew it
would be SO, but l wish 1 had been there to
see it. l saw that there was a devil in the
woman, and that they would die as she said.
When there is a devil in people they always
speak the truth, because they can't help it.
Look, baas, l draw a circle in the sand with
my foot, and l say some words so, and at
last the ends touch. There, that is the circle
Of ON Jacob and his wife the Englishwoman.
The ends ave touched and they are dead.
An old witch doctor taught me to draw the
circle Of O mans life and what words to say.
And now I draw another Of Baas Frank. All!
there is a stone sticking up in the way. The
ends will not touch. But now l work and
work and work with my foot, and say the
words n say the words, and so-the stone
comes up and the ends touch nov. SO it is
with Baas Frank. One day the stone will
come up INT the ends will touch, and he, too,
will die in blood. The devil in the English
woman said 80, and devils cannot lie or speak